Showcase



Aug. 7,l 1.956

H. s. BERRY ET AL 2,758,000

SHOWCASE Filed Feb. l5, 1954 `2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS HENRY S.BERRY JULIA H. BERRY ATTORNEYS Aug- 7, 1956 H. s. BERRY ET A1. 2,758,000

SHOWCASE Filed Feb. l5, 1954 2 Sheets-Shee'r 2 CAg @if Z 7 /2 HENQVESNDRY JULIA H BERRY ATTORNEYS United States Patent O SHWCASE Henry S. Berry and Julia H. Berry, Milwaukee, Wis.

Applicau'on February 15, 1954, Serial No. 410,132

1 Claim. (Cl. S12-128) This invention appertains to store tixtures and more particularly to cabinets for the displaying and selling of articles of merchandise.

One of the primary objects of our invention is to provide a cabinet for displaying articles to the best and equal advantage from the lowermost shelves to the uppermost shelves, and to construct the cabinet in such a manner that the goods will be positioned on a true arc of a circle, the curvature of which follows the natural swing of the arm from the shoulder of a prospective purchaser standing in front of the cabinet.

Another salient object of our invention is to provide a display and selling cabinet which can be used either as an aisle or Wall cabinet and in which the shelves or partitions are arranged in an arc of a circle so that the goods shown on the shelves can all be readily seen by a person standing at a point distant from the cabinet, the shelves or partitions being formed from transparent material so that the shelves or partitions arranged on the arc of a circle will not form an opaque barrier to hide the goods as a person views the case or cabinet.

A further important object of our invention is to provide a cabinet of the above character, which is so constructed that not only is a maximum quantity of goods displayed to view for direct selling, but whereby an adequate storage space will be provided that is readily accessible, so that as goods are sold from the shelves, the same can be quickly replaced from the goods in the storage space.

A still further object of our invention is to provide a display and selling cabinet or showcase of the above character, which will be durable and ecient in use and one which can be manufactured at a low cost and which Will present an attractive appearance, so as to please the esthetic tastes of the purchasing public.

Another important feature of ourinvention is that the case is so constructed that the curved back piece of the display section holds a large majority of the Weight of the merchandise on display, so that our shelves form in conjunction with the back piece merchandise receiving bins and thereby replace the common use of shelves for supporting weight. The structural strength obtained by the bending of the material used in the back piece eliminates the necessity of bracing, etc., normally used to support extended shelving and in this display the back then becomes in usage shelving, and the glass shelves in a general sense, partitions only.

A further important part of our invention is to construct the cabinet in such a manner so that when the package or merchandise at the front or top of each bin is sold or removed, the remaining packages or merchandise which were behind or below the removed packages or merchandise are also displayed to the best and equal advantage from the lowermost shelves to the uppermost shelves, this follows with each removal and remaining packages until the back piece of the display is reached.

The results of this display and shelf arrangement are ice similar to that obtained by a mechanical dispenser wherein when one package or piece of merchandise is removed from a preferred position on the display, a replacement package or piece of merchandise is automatically and mechanically fed into the position vacated. In our invention, this desired result is obtained throughout all the display bins but without the frequently undesirable movement of packages or merchandise.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and formation of parts as will be hereinafter more specifically described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which drawings,

Figure l is a perspective view of a display and selling cabinet or showcase embodying the features of the invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view through the cabinet illustrating the arrangement of the display shelves and the position thereof relative to the natural swing of the arm from the shoulder of a prospective purchaser;

Figure 3 is a front elevational view of the cabinet, and

Figure 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 4 4 of Figure 3, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, the letter C generally indicates our display and merchandising cabinet or case, and the same includes a pair of spaced parallel side walls 5 and 6. These walls are braced by a bottom wall 7, a front transversely extending rail 8 and a top rear rail 9.

Supported by the side walls 5 and 6 and the rails 8 and 9 is a display and supporting wall 10 curved on a true are of a circle, and associated with this wall 10 are a plurality of spaced partitions or shelves 11 preferably radiating from the axis of the circle on which the arc of the wall 10 is struck. Actually, the body of the cabinet can be formed in various manners so as to provide an attractive appearing case. If desired, molding strips 12 can be secured to the inner faces of the walls 5 and 6 to form additional supporting means for the display and supporting wall 10. The front edges of the side walls 5 and 6 above and forwardly of the wall 10 are curved as at 13 to correspond to the curvature of the wall 10. The upper end of the body of the case above the topmost shelf can be provided with a top wall 14 of an ornamental character and a part of this wall can be constructed from transparent or translucent material to form a shade for a fluorescent or other illuminating means 15. The case can be illuminated in any other desired way. A base 16 preferably of an ornamental character is provided for the case and the same can be oiset inwardly as best shown in Figure 1.

The shelves or partitions 11 form supports and dividers for the merchandise to be displayed and sold and these shelves are formed from transparent materim so that the goods can be seen through these shelves. The wall 10 and the shelves 11 are arranged at a certain height above the base 16 to permit a clear observation of the goods on the shelves to be had at the natural eye level of a prospective purchaser, and the shelves are so arranged that the uppermost one is substantially in a horizontal plane and the lowermost one is substantially in a vertical plane. The shelves can be detachably held in place in any preferred manner to permit different arrangements thereof to be had, and we preferably provide removable pegs 17 carried by the side walls 5 and 6. The pegs can be arranged in groups of threes on the side walls with the center peg of each group out of alignment with the inner and outer pegs, so that the shelves can be slipped in between these pegs, as is clearly shown in Figure 2.

vPatented Aug. 7, 1956 If desired, centerxsupporting pegs 18 can be carried by the display wall 10 to prevent the downward bowing Yof the shelves or partitions 11 under the weight of the goods supported thereby.

By referring to Figure 2 it can be seen that the .position of the wall 10 and the arc of the circle on which it is struck is such that the same follows the natural swing of a prospective purchasers arm from his shoulder so that the goods on the shelves can be reached with equal facility from the lowermost shelf to the top. The arc of the wall 10 is also such that a` person standing in front of the ease can readily s ee the goods on each and every shelf eitherby looking down on the shelves or through the shelves as the case may be, according to the distance of theperson from the front of the case. This is important, in that all of the .goods are displayed to equal advantage and there is no stooping to reach an article even from the lowermost shelf.

A storage space l19 is provided below and in back of the display wall 10, and as goods are taken from the shelves 11 by purchasers, the same can be easily replenished by store attendants from the storage space.

If desired, a rear wall (not shown) can be provided for the back of the case.

Obviously, by placing two cases back-to-back, the same form admirable aisle cases and of course, the cases or cabinets can be placed against a wall for use as wall cabinets.

From the foregoing description, it can be seen that we have provided a cabinet which not only of itself presents an attractive appearance, but one in which the goods are displayed to the best advantage and which will permit the easy reaching of the goods from the top to the bottom shelf without stooping.

Changes in details may be made without departing from the spirit or the scope of this invention, but what we claim as new is:

A display and merchandising cabinet comprising a body including spaced parallel side walls, a bottom wall and a display and supporting wall carried by the side walls at a point well above the bottom wall, said display and supporting wall being on a true arc of a circle, and having its upper end terminating adjacent the rear upper portion of said side walls, and dividing shelves associated with said display and supporting wall forming in conjunction therewith bins for articles to be sold, said shelves extending from side wall to side wall and each shelf forming a segment of the radius of the circle on which the arc of the supporting wall is struck, the space between the display and supporting wall and the bottom wall constituting a storage compartment.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 606,911 Biele July 5, 1898 1,335,286 Leonard Mar. 30, 1920 1,757,076 Eckerly May 5, 1930 2,021,207 Stats Nov. 19, 1935 2,228,221 Bales Jan. 7, 1941 2,320,556 Belshaw June 1, 1943 2,517,678 Knittel Aug. 8, 1950 

